No major headaches during yesterday morning's commute during Pulaski Skyway closure

Traffic in Jersey City wasn’t quite the nightmare many predicted it would be yesterday, the 11th day of the shutdown of the northbound lanes of the Pulaski Skyway.

Motorists drove with minor delays on the New Jersey Turnpike Extension, while traffic flowed on Routes 1&9T north of Communipaw Avenue with the usual rush-hour delays.

Poorly-synched traffic lights at Communipaw Avenue and Routes 1&9T, as well as an unfortunately timed Lincoln Highway bridge raising, resulted in 40-minute backups in that area between 7 and 9 a.m. and some ornery drivers leaning on their horns. But that’s not much different from a normal day.

“It was fine, it was moving, no delays or anything like that,” said Maurice Dawson, 40, of Brooklyn, at a gas station right outside of the Holland Tunnel.

Dawson used the Turnpike to get to the tunnel.

Sal Ahmed, 61, of Edison, said he’s made the trek from New Jersey to his office in Manhattan for 15 years and that there was little to no traffic yesterday morning on the Turnpike.

“Traffic was very good,” he said. “I took an entirely different route instead of Route 22 or Pulaski.”

The New York-bound lanes of the Skyway are closed for a two-year construction project, part of a $1 billion rehabilitation of the 82-year-old bridge. Though the shutdown began on April 12, Jersey City schools were on vacation all last week and Monday.

Officials believed yesterday would be the first true test of whether the state’s alternate routes can handle the increase in traffic now that the 40,000 motorists who use the New York-bound lanes of the Skyway must find other ways to get to work.

Jersey City officials were gathered at the city Office of Emergency Management headquarters on Summit Avenue early yesterday, watching a bank of television screens tuned to security footage from around the city. When a problem popped up — an emergency vehicle parked in a lane of traffic to talk to someone on the sidewalk, a bus inspector picking rush hour to pull over buses on Communipaw Avenue — officials were on their radios, stamping out the fires.

At one point, Deputy Police Chief Joseph Connors sent a message on his radio to remind officers not to allow left-hand turns at intersections where those turns are now prohibited during rush hour. When a security camera showed one officer allowing the turns anyway, Connors turned back to his radio.

“Please remind officers they are on camera,” he said.

Mayor Steve Fulop said the city’s plan to mitigate traffic related to the Skyway shutdown, such as stationing more than 50 cops at various intersections and prohibiting stopping or standing on some roadways, has worked.

“All in all, the city was, relatively speaking, as good as anyone could have hoped for,” Fulop said.

Public Safety Director James Shea said state officials have agreed to adjust the timing of a traffic light at Communipaw Avenue and Routes 1&9T to help traffic move at a faster clip today.